1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a tray and retainer for holding medical instruments and in particular to a safe, compact dental cassette adapted for use with compact autoclaves and compact sterilization pouches known as autoclave bags.
2. Description of Prior Developments
Medical instruments, and particularly dental instruments, can be placed in a tray or similar holder before and after use on a patient. After use, the tray, along with the instruments, is subsequently placed in an ultrasonic cleaner to remove debris from the instruments. After ultrasonic cleaning, the instruments may be wrapped in a protective material and then heated in an autoclave to sterilize the instruments in preparation for the next patient use.
In some cases, the trays carrying the instruments cannot fit within the autoclave. This necessitates either eliminating the use of the tray or removing the instruments from the tray, placing the loose instruments in an autoclave bag and then placing the autoclave bag in an autoclave. As the instruments are not sterile when being bagged, the dental technician placing the instruments in the bag is placed at risk of contamination and infection by contact with the instruments. After sterilization, the instruments must be individually removed from autoclave bag. This individual removal can result in contamination of the instruments and is generally considered inconvenient. Moreover, the loose instruments can impact one another in the autoclave bag and result in the dulling of sharp instruments.
Accordingly, what is needed is a compact cassette for securely holding medical and dental instruments in both compact autoclave bags as well as compact autoclaves.
A further need exists for such a cassette and which can fit within virtually all sterilization autoclaves so that instruments need not be removed from the cassette during autoclaving.
A further need exists for a compact cassette which facilitates placement within autoclave bags and particularly within compact autoclave bags.
Another need exists for a compact cassette particularly adapted for use with compact autoclaves and which can be easily fitted within a compact autoclave bag.
Still another need exists for a compact cassette which can securely hold one or more instruments in place during ultrasonic cleaning, autoclaving, and subsequent removal from an autoclave bag.
Yet another need exists for such a cassette having an instrument retainer which can be installed and removed with one hand thereby leaving a dentist or doctor free to use the other hand as needed.